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What calls for thinking about law? What does it mean to think about law? What is aboutness? Could it be that law, in its essence, has not yet been thought about? In exploring these questions, this book offers a close reading of Heidegger's thought, especially his later poetical writings. Heidegger's transformation of the very notion and process of thinking has destabilising implications for the formation of any theory of law, however critical this theory may be.
This transformation of thinking also affects the notions of ethics and morality and the manner in which law relates to them. Oren Ben-Dor's new work explores interpretations of Heidegger's unique understanding of notions such as 'essence', 'thinking', 'language', 'truth', and 'nearness', suggesting that the essence of law has not yet been thought about, and asking what generates deafness to the call for such thinking, thereby entrenching a refuge for legalism?
The ambit of the legal is traced to Levinasian ethics, especially to his notion of otherness, despite such a notion being apparently highly critical of the totality of the legal. In entrenching the legal, Levinas' notion of otherness is argued not to reflect thinking which is otherwise than ontology but rather to radicalise a derivative ontology. A call for thinking about law is then connected to Heideggerian ontologically-based otherness upon which ethics, one which the essence of law enforces, is grounded.
Oren Ben-Dor teaches legal and political philosophy at the School of Law, University of Southampton. He is the author of Constitutional Limits and the Public Sphere, Hart Publishing, 2000.
Thinking about Law is a fascinating and rich study about access to justice. It is a rich study because it draws heavily from the pre-Socratic view of justice and the relation of the Hebrew language with justice. It is fascinating because it takes on critical and analytic approaches to law.
William E. Conklin
...I have been reading and re-reading parts of Thinking about Law: In Silence with Heidegger. Wonderful! A major achievement. This is one of the most important jurisprudence books for a number of years.'
Costas Douzinas, Professor of Law, Birkbeck College, Nov 07
...[Oren Ben-Dor] develops a close reading firstly of Heidegger through a dense series of numbered paragraphs, and then deploys a discussion of Levinas to establish the ethical other from which a discussion of the essence of law, that does not include the legal as its central aspect, can be constructed.
Christopher May
Political Studies Review
Vol 7 (1), 2009
Martin Heidegger, that 'greatest of thinkers, but smallest of men', has not been served particularly well by legal philosophers. That is, not until the publication of Oren Ben-Dor's Thinking about Law. In the opinion of this reviewer, this subtle and detailed analysis of the contribution of Heidegger's thought to our understanding of law constitutes an original and important contribution to both legal theory and Heidegger's scholarship…This is a book that should be read by anyone with a serious interest in a phenomenology of law, and what it means to construct legal theory…it constantly confronts us with the radical differences between the transcendental perspective of continental phenomenology and English-speaking analytical philosophy. Ben-Dor certainly seems conscious to this, and builds complexity of the text as he progresses…It is an impressive piece of scholarship and a book that will reward re-reading.
Julian Webb
Legal Studies
Volume 29 No.2
